Pittsburgh and western
Pennsylvania are great places to live and to visit. We hope you'll allow
plenty of time to do other things before and after the wedding weekend. Here
are some ideas to get you started. For a more complete list, try visitPA's site for southwestern Pennsylvania. If you're bringing
children with you, check out the Family Fun | Kidsburgh Featured Getaway
section of VisitPittsburgh, as they offer discounted admission packages to multiple
family-friendly attractions. And Citysearch always has lists of things to do around town.

News: I will be working with the
Pittsburgh
History and Landmarks Foundation to create a walking tour of
Regent Square and Edgewood! I am very excited about this, and I think they
are, too. I'll post details here as I have them. In case of inclement
weather and for folks who'd rather drive than walk, I'm also planning to put
together a driving version :)

Pittsburgh native Andy Warhol
inspired the Andy Warhol Museum, the nation's largest museum dedicated to a single
artist--second in the world only to the Rembrandt museum. If you have any
free time here at all, this is a great way to spend it. But don't let your
kids wander unaccompanied--there are some paintings you may not want them to
see :)

Baum Vivant is one of Pittsburgh
Magazine's 25 best restaurants in Pittsburgh, and we agree. The magazine has
also ranked it highly for seven consecutive years. It's an intimate little
restaurant in a nondescript location. Not cheap; reservations suggested.

Bikki is another of Pittsburgh Magazine's
25 best Pittsburgh restaurants. It's changed ownership since we last went;
when we were there, we liked the food but found the service lacking.

Bona Terra is another of Pittsburgh
Magazine's 25 best Pittsburgh restaurants, and one of the few we haven't
tried yet.

Cafe Asia is another of Pittsburgh
Magazine's 25 best Pittsburgh restaurants, and yet another we haven't tried.
Yikes.

Cafe Zinho is another of Pittsburgh
Magazine's 25 best Pittsburgh restaurants. It's a funky little place in a
converted garage near my friend Marcie's house.

If a group of
15 or more makes reservations at least two weeks in advance, Daffin's
Candies will give you a tour of the factory, including, of course, a
sample. Its nearby Chocolate Kingdom is in the world's largest candy store.
Naturally, if you felt like bringing back some chocolate-covered pretzels, I
wouldn't object :)

Dish Osteria is one of Pittsburgh
Magazine's 25 best Pittsburgh restaurants of which I'd never even heard
until researching restaurants to which to take Andrew for his birthday.
Shame on me!

The Duquesne Incline is a unique experience that offers fantastic views
of downtown--but it's definitely not for people with fears of heights or
small places :)

Amid the
strip malls and superstores of the eastern suburb of Monroeville lies Exkursion,
where you can learn to climb, kayak, backpack, or orient yourself
using a map and compass.

One of the must-see items on this list is Frank Lloyd Wright-designed
Fallingwater.
It takes a little planning, because it's about a two-hour country drive from
Pittsburgh and the shortest tour itself lasts 45 minutes. You'll also want to allow
time to explore the breathtaking grounds and the tempting gift shop. There
are longer tours and a children's tour (new since my last visit). And if
you're smart, you'll also plan the day to include a trip to Kentuck Knob.

The Fort
Pitt Museum, near Point State Park in downtown Pittsburgh
at the point where the Allegheny, Monongahela(that's
mon-on-ga-HEY-la), and Ohio Rivers join,
interprets the French and Indian War, Pontiac's War, and
Pennsylvania frontier history.

The Flight
93 Memorial Site commemorates the crash of that flight on September
11, 2001, after its hijacking and struggle.

A great way to see the city--and a
fun way to get to a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game if there is
one--is aboard the Gateway Clipper. The fleet offers a variety of sightseeing cruises.

The Ghost Town Trail is one of many biking trails in the area. You
can also hike or ride horses on it.

Girasole is one of those restaurants I
pass all the time in Shadyside and never thought a thing about, but it turns
out it's on Pittsburgh Magazine's list of the 25 best restaurants in
Pittsburgh. Who knew? I'll have to try it now!

Idlewild is our very family-friendly amusement park,
though I'm not sure if it will still be open in late September.

Isabela on Grandview is on Pittsburgh
Magazine's list of the 25 best restaurants in Pittsburgh. Yet another I've
never tried. And I thought we'd tried so many of them. Hm.

I highly recommend taking a
Just
Ducky Tour. This amphibious tour shows you lots of parts of town
with little tidbits of information about each--nothing too in-depth, all for
fun--including a jaunt in the rivers. Kids on board even get to take a turn
driving.

Kentuck
Knob is the less famous but every bit as beautiful as Fallingwater
(I know--blasphemy) Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Usonian house. It's
just minutes from Fallingwater, so a great day would be to spend the morning
at one house, have lunch at the cafe at Ohiopyle at Fallingwater, then see
the other house in the afternoon. The tour itself is only about an hour
long, but the grounds are worth that long on their own, with great outdoor
sculpture and trails.

It took me a few years to make my
first trip to the Mattress Factory, and I should have gone sooner. This small,
out-of-the-way artmuseum is swell!

Pittsburgh is home to the
National Aviary. We took Andrew's parents there the first time they met Lisa,
and Andrew took a beautiful photograph of a male toucan feeding a female
toucan that is still one of Lisa's favorite photos.

Photography lovers will not
want to miss Photo Antiquities, a museum of photographic history. On the north side,
it's an easy side trip from the Andy WarholMuseum, the Carnegie
ScienceCenter, or Penn Brewery.

Shadyside is a nice
neighborhood for walking. It can be a fun neighborhood for shopping, but not
as funky as it used to be. Lisa lived here the first two years she lived in
Pittsburgh, when it had a mom-and-pop full-service-only gas station, mostly
independently owned shops and restaurants, and everyone seemed to know
everyone. Since then, Williams-Sonoma opened (and the neighborhood cookware store closed
shortly thereafter), a two-story Pottery
Barn replaced two independently owned restaurants, a three-story
Gap replaced
a small Pier
One (also a chain, but at least it was small), and a three-story
Banana
Republic replaced the gas station. So...still practical, but more like
going to a mall than to a hip little neighborhood. On the other hand, it
still boasts a great collection of good small restaurants in a close
proximity to one another, handy if you have, say, an indecisive crowd to
please and you want to go to a neighborhood then decide what to eat. There's
sushi, Thai, French (where we got engaged!), Peruvian, and several
burger-salad-and-sandwich places. It also has some beautiful architecture;
it's probably the most expensive neighborhood in the city in which to live,
so if you like to walk around looking at beautiful homes, this is a great
place to be.

The Shops
at Station Square offer a twist on the usual shopping experience.
This is also the departure point for Just Ducky Tours. There's also a comedy
club where we've seen Jim
Gaffigan and a couple of good restaurants, and an outdoor concert venue
where we've seen Lyle Lovett.

Soba Lounge is one
of Pittsburgh Magazine's 25 best Pittsburgh restaurants. Yummy on the eyes
and on the tummy.

Pittsburgh's
South
Side has vintage clothing, tattoo parlors, art supplies,
restaurants, theatres, used books, anything you can imagine wanting and
things you might not want. Much of our courtship and dating was spent here,
actually; we went to the City Theatre about every six weeks for the first several years, dining
before each show at Chiarina's or Old Europe and spending a little too much
at Eljay's Used Books. We've seen klezmer and Eddie from
Ohio at Club
Cafe.

Squirrel Hill is where Andrew lived when we met, and where
the restaurant is where we met. It was also Mister Rogers' neighborhood
when he was living. Andrew bought Lisa's engagement ring from a jewelry
store there, we've seen movies at the theatres there, and of course
spent plenty of time at the coffee shops and book stores there.

The Strip District is a great neighborhood for funky shops, ethnic and
specialty foods, and people watching. The Bread, My Sweet was filmed here and featured it beautifully.

These are things
going on the weekend of the wedding. We'll fill in details as we know them.
If you don't see anything on the schedule for yourself, look in the left
column for ideas of things to do with your free time! The map below shows
where the significant events will take place as well as the lodgings that
are closest to them. (Yes, there are more direct routes between Regent
Square and Edgewood to the southeast and Shadyside to the northwest, but
we've routed you around traffic and congested intersections. Trust us!)

Quaker weddings
are really beautiful; most people I've met who've attended them say they’re
the most moving and personal weddings they’ve ever attended. But because
this will differ pretty much from what you'll have seen at other weddings,
we'll give you some idea here.

Beginning: Mark and Sharlotte
will be playing music to welcome people into the living room, where they'll
take a seat among the guest chairs arranged in concentric squares
surrounding our chairs, which will face each other in the center of the
room, symbolically surrounded by our family and friends.

After
people are seated, including Andrew and me, Jennifer will stand and
explain briefly what people should expect. Then people will fall into
silence for a bit. There will be children in the room for all of this
part—about one in six of the people on our possible guest list is a child,
many young, many babies.

Vows: Fifteen or twenty minutes into it, Andrew and I will decide that
we're ready. We will stand, holding hands, in place. He’ll say his vows: “In
the presence of our family and friends, I take you to be my wife, promising
to be your loving and faithful husband as long as we both shall live.” Then
I’ll say mine: “In the presence of our family and friends, I take you to be
my husband, promising to be your loving and faithful wife as long as we both
shall live.” We’ll exchange rings, kiss, and sit down.

Certificate: Some combination of friends will
stand and read from a marriage certificate (something like these): “On this the
24th day of September, 2005, Andrew Bennett Bernard and Lisa Michelle Price
appeared together. Andrew, taking Lisa by the hand, on this solemn and
joyous occasion, declared that he took Lisa to be his wife, promising to be
her loving and faithful husband. Then, in the same assembly, Lisa in like
manner declared that she took Andrew to be her husband, promising to be his
loving and faithful wife. Moreover, Andrew and Lisa did, as further
confirmation thereof, then and there, to this certificate set their hands.”
We will then sign the certificate (me with my new name). The reader will
then take the certificate back and finish reading: “And we, having been
present at the marriage, have as witnesses hereunto set our hands.” The
readers will then sign the certificate as well. Other guests may sign the
certificate following the ceremony.

Children: After we and the readers have signed the certificate,
the child-care folks will take all the children from the
living room down the hall to a fun room on the other side of the building,
where they can have fun, make a racket, nosh, and change their clothes.

The rest of the hour: The rest of us will settle back into silence as well
as we can. We wait for The Light (which for some people is God, for others
is Jesus, for me is just wisdom or enlightenment), and we speak if we feel
compelled to do so. It isn’t supposed to be us talking, but The Light
delivering its message through us as its conduit. It’s a little mystical
sounding, but it works for some folks.

The end:After *about* an hour has passed--though by no means
exactly, as it really will be about the clerk (in this case, Jennifer)
determining that an appropriate amount of time has passed for the last
message to have sunken in--Jennifer will decide that it is time to end the
meeting. She will cue the DJ to play Great Day.
It’s a beautiful gospel song by one of my favorite bands (Eddie
from Ohio) that begins very softly and has perfect lyrics.

Thereafter, it’s all about the fun. The French doors will open to the
ballroom, people will be congratulating, hugging, kissing, signing the
certificate if we have one, milling about, and slowly moving into the
ballroom for the reception.